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Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Jae Ho Yang, Ki Won Kang, Kun Woo Song, Chan Bock Lee, Youn Ho Jung
Nuclear Technology | Volume 147 | Number 1 | July 2004 | Pages 113-119
Technical Paper | Thoria-Urania NERI | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Techniques to fabricate thorium-uranium dioxide fuel [(Th,U)O2] have been developed, and the thermal conductivity of (Th,U)O2 pellets has been measured. Mixtures of thorium dioxide (ThO2) and uranium dioxide (UO2) powders were successfully wet-milled, compacted, and sintered at 1700°C to fabricate (Th,U)O2 pellets. The wet-milling process results in a fuel density of 96 to 98% of theoretical density and a uniform distribution of the uranium and thorium in the (Th,U)O2 pellet. The laser flash method was used to measure the thermal diffusivity of the ThO2 and (Th,U)O2 pellets, and the thermal conductivities of (Th0.655U0.345)O2 and (Th0.355U0.645)O2 fuel were found to be lower than that of ThO2 or UO2 fuel. The degradation of the thermal conductivity by the UO2 substitution is great at low temperatures but decreases as the temperature increases.
